Friday, April 29, 2011

Stitched With Love

I found some stamps with sayings on them related to sewing and quilting so got them to team up with the Sew Suite range of products in the new mini.

Here's my first card made with them. I hauled out the sewing machine again and even added some buttons. I have a HUGE stash of buttons and hardly ever use them!


Materials used:
  • stamps - Pattern Pieces (SU), Quilter's Sampler Sentiments (PTI)
  • card - Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Sweet Stitches DSP
  • other - scallop border punch, buttons, dimensionals (all SU); sewing machine
My second card uses one of my fav colour combos - black, cream and pink - in a much more shabby chic style card. Sorry about the night time photography!


Materials used:
  • stamps - Sew Suite (SU), Quilter's Sampler Sentiments (PTI)
  • card - Blushing Bride, Basic Black, watercolour, Love Letter DSP
  • punches - 32 mm circle, 35 mm circle, scallop circle, scallop trim border
  • other - very vanilla satin ribbon, dimensionals, sponge daubers, aquapainter, crystal effects
Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

New Twist On An Old Favourite

I had an idea to make a little alteration to my Ferrero Rocher suitcase; I decided to remove the suitcase element and turn it into a drawer with an easel on top. The reason for this is that I wanted to give some choccies to a friend as a thank you and I wanted to use the Eat Chocolate set, so rather than make two separate pieces, I combined them as one!

Here's how it turned out:




I think it's kinda cute. Don't think the chocs are going to last very long though - and hope she doesn't expect me to keep it refilled! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Commissioned

DD19's uni college is having a big fundraising event shortly and they'll have a silent auction for which I was asked to make some boxed sets of cards. You can imagine what a hardship that was, LOL!!!

I made three sets, two of which you have seen before here (but I made a new box) and here.


For the third set I was inspired by some lovely cards made by Kristine McNickle using the Sweet Summer set. Here's the lid of my box:


The complete set of 4 cards:


More Mustard and Perfect Plum:


Marina Mist and Rose Red:


DD19 returns to Melbourne today - the days have just flown by while she's been home and I'm sure going to miss her, but at least it won't be long till we see her again when we go down for the big event.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Cheers
Kez

Monday, April 25, 2011

Old Friends

Australia and New Zealand are like siblings; they try to best each other at everything, they argue about who did what first and they poke fun at each other at every opportunity! But, like siblings, should a third party come along and try to pick on either one, the other is instantly there to defend and support and they are suddenly the best of friends. This spirit of comradeship has been alive for a long time and never more so than during World War I when Australian and New Zealand forces fought their first major military action.

The ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25th April 1915 in a plan by Winston Churchill to capture Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire. They met with fierce resistance from the Turkish army and very heavy losses were sustained. News of the landing at Gallipoli and the bravery of the ANZAC forces against incredible odds made a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April became the day on which we remember the sacrifice of those who died in war.


So today is ANZAC day and ceremonies are held in practically every suburb and town in both countries for all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. In Australia they wear sprigs of rosemary and in New Zealand they wear red poppies for rememberance.


Fittingly, the challenge at Just Add Ink this week is to just add comradeship/friendship and so I dragged out some of my favourite papers from 7 Gypsies many moons ago and a stamp I picked up at a flea market somewhere. The sentiment was embossed and then I added some crackle effects over the top to give it an antique look to suit the words. The wooden embellishment was painted with gold. Take a look:




Here's a close up of the crackle effect - makes it look like leather I think:




Thanks for stopping by and if you are in Aus or NZ, have a great ANZAC Day.


Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Smells So Good

DD19 is coming home tomorrow for Easter and as a special treat for us all DD12 decided to bake up a storm today! She is making my favourite NZ cookies - Ginger Crunch - plus DD19 and DH's favourite - Belgium Biscuits - as well as stewing some apples, so the place smells DIVINE right now! Mmmmmmmm, spices! ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice ..... wow, wish you could all be here to share this delightful aroma!

I thought I would make a card for DD19, just for fun, and wanted to use a sentiment from SU's Morning Cup set. My elder daughter is most definitely NOT a morning person and when she does have to (begrudgingly) get up for an early lecture (or to fly home!) she copes a whole lot better with a good cup of coffee inside her. Here's her card:


And of course DD12 deserved something special too for her baking efforts (she can't eat them herself), so I "whipped up" a very similar card for her:


I am such a lucky mum to have two gorgeous and wonderful daughters!

Non SU materials used: Martha Stewart punches, Kaiser giant pearl brads

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, April 17, 2011

I'd Like to Own Shares in Cadburys

This week the ladies at Just Add Ink are torturing .. oops, I mean challenging everyone to be inspired by the wrapper colours of their favourite chocolate bar. Can you believe it? We have to pick just one favourite? Were they kidding us? No, it appears they are deadly serious. How to choose? how to choose? It's like asking a mother to choose her favourite child!

Well, the dilemma had to be solved, so I set about it in what I consider to be a most scientific manner. I went to the local supermarket and walked up and down the confectionery aisle, perusing the contenders. Firstly I discarded the obvious malcontents - ie those varieties containing nuts (yuk). Next I discounted the assortments already chosen by the design team for their samples (mint, violet crumble, cherry ripe etc) and finally got it down to two possibles - both Cadburys - Black Forest or Turkish Delight. Both incredibly delicious, both with a jelly portion inside the chocolate, both firm favourites. Mmmmmmmm. But the pressure was on: I had to pick just one.

In the end it came down to this: the turkish delight wrapper was deep purple and bright pink; the black forest was deep purple and a redder purple. Sorry TD, purple wins over bright pink any day! Black Forest it was!

And so here is my card:



Materials used:
  • stamps - Stampin' Up!, Verve
  • card - concord crush, rich razzleberry, whisper white, concord crush patterned paper
  • other - rich razzleberry satin ribbon, dimensionals, digital image, nestabilities 
BTW, did you know that red wine and dark chocolate are REALLY GOOD together? And full of antioxidants too, so good for you as well! So what are you waiting for - go have some and get healthy!

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Hidden Away

It's amazing what you find when you clear out a whole lot of old stuff in cupboards, boxes and drawers, isn't it? My good find yesterday was some stamps I bought many years ago and had forgotten I owned, and now I find they will go very nicely with current favs!

One such is the sentiment stamp I've used on today's card and which was obviously lurking somewhere in the cobwebs of my mind when I made up this card. Just goes to show that those cobwebs do still make stuff stick, LOL! Anyways, on to the card:


Materials used:
  • stamps - Stampin' Up!, Stamp It (sentiment), Papertrey Ink (frame)
  • card - soft suede, very vanilla, Springtime Vintage DSP (all SU)
  • inks - basic black, soft suede, rose red (all SU)
  • other - die by PTI, pearl strand by Kaiser, rose red seam binding by SU
I better go check out some more stored stuff - never know what I might find! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Bunny Sweetness


Is that a cute bunny or what? It's made from the top note die and punches and this is the gorgeous box I got in the Easter Swap from my swapee, Theresa. Here is another photo with the card and tag that came with it:


The card has a sweet treat cup tummy and the arm on the right holding the carrot flavoured heart is how you get the treats out. It pulls out to open a door at the back. I am so tickled to get one of these because I am absolutely USELESS at these sweet treat cup thingies and the whole magic opening and sliding door thing - honestly, just hopeless! Just too scientific for my simple brain ...

By the time these yummies arrived, one of the card bunny's eyelids had gone missing, so it looks like he is winking at me, LOL! It is awfully difficult having chocolate sitting there though and knowing it is nearly a week until Easter ..........!

Thanks to Theresa for such lovely gifts and thanks to you for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, April 15, 2011

Easter Goodies


Over at Crafters Anonymous I joined in the Easter Swap for a bit of fun. Our brief was:
  • Rule 1: Item MUST contain Chocolate
  • Rule 2: It can be any medium
  • Rule 3: It must be in a bag or box
Since my swap buddy, Theresa, has let me know that she has received my goodies, I can now show them to you.

Firstly I made an easel card and my colours were heavily influenced by some lovely cards made by Jenny Moors as I liked her Spring-like combo. I pulled out the A Good Egg set for it's annual dust off! and set to work. 


Now, boxes aren't really my strength but I figure I'll only get better if I practice (that's the theory anyway!), so firstly I had an attempt at a box made with the scallop envelope die. I'm not completely sure that it is perfectly square, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Here's my effort:



Next I made a box made from the mini milk carton die and I felt more confident with this one. I've gone with the simple tie top version and yes, there's a chick on all six sides. I think I'll be making some more of these; they were reasonably easy and I love how it looks a lot like a bag.



The best part was filling them with chocolate goodies! I added in some little chicks too for a bit of fun.

Materials used:
  • stamps - A Good Egg
  • card - peach parfait, so saffron, Baja breeze, watercolour paper
  • DSP - so saffron patterned (retired), peach parfait patterned, Baja breeze patterned (retired)
  • ribbon - Baja breeze seam binding, pumpkin pie grosgrain
  • punches - scallop circle, XL scallop circle, 2 3/8" circle, non SU circle, large oval, scallop oval, decorative label
  • other - mini milk carton die, scallop envelope die, so saffron brads, crop-o-dile
Hope you're having fun making Easter projects too! Tomorrow I'll show you the lovely things Theresa made for me!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Boys And Their Toys

We all know how difficult it is to make a card for the blokes in our lives! Luckily SU's new mini catalogue contains not one but two great masculine a la carte stamps, making it not only easier but also inexpensive to make fabulous cards for our menfolk.

This month's Sunday class are making masculine birthday cards and I've used the new Motorcycle and Sail Away stamps, both of which - as luck would have it - are just perfect for my DH!

My first card is cased from Mary Brown with little changes to her fabulous card - hey, when it ain't broke, don't try to fix it! Pumpkin pie, marina mist, not quite navy and sahara sand are the colours.


Next up I cased Dawn Olchefske who used multiple stamping to show movement on her card. I thought this technique was awesome and it's actually very easy to do. More mustard, cajun craze and not quite navy were my accent colours for this one.


And last but not least one to appeal to the younger man. Lots of Bots is a great stand by for boys and DH's like mine who are in to things mechanical! This one is again cased (I know, bad case of mojonogo!!!), this time from Jen Sannes and I added in the spotlighted piece.


Hope you like them. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Punch Art Class

Next week my ladies will be having fun with SU's great punches. The cards they'll be making will be my sheep and baby dino and then they'll make this basic card with a choice of punch art figures to put on it - either a Babushka doll or the ever-adorable Pooh. I love them both and couldn't decide which card to use for class, so we'll make both figures and my ladies can choose which one to put on their card!




The Babushka was designed by Deb Fearns and the Pooh was designed by Evonne Yamazaki and they are both made using the owl punch plus a few friends! Aren't they great? Such talented ladies.

Hope you're having some fun in your day and enjoying the school holidays if you're in Aus. Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Twisted Easel

I've seen a few twisted easel cards around which looked kinda interesting, so I thought I'd have a go. Gotta say I think I prefer the regular ones but it was fun trying it out. This card actually started off as part of another project but it got rejected for being way too big for my focal image and as I didn't want it to go to waste, I recycled it into this!

Here it is closed:

And open:

The image was stamped twice - once on the whisper white circle and once on watercolour paper, which was coloured with inks and markers, then meticulously cut out and stuck over the top. Gives it a nice 3D effect which probably doesn't show in the photo. Anyway, there it is, my first and probably only twisted easel card! Thanks for all those who voted on the SU/non SU question and hope you enjoy an occasional peek at my other cards!

Materials used:
  • stamps - Sugar Nellie, Stampin' Up!
  • card - peach parfait, so saffron, Baja breeze, whisper white
  • paper - so saffron patterned (retired), peach parfait patterned (hostess), watercolour paper
  • other - decorative label punch, nestabilities die, dimensionals, Baja breeze seam binding, pumpkin pie grosgrain 6mm ribbon
Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, April 8, 2011

Friends Of All Shapes And Sizes

Howdy peeps! Another card for you today using the new Sew Suite set from the Autumn/Winter mini.

Once again I have computer generated my sentiment - sew wish someone would make these into stamps! I used the dressmaker's dummy and tape measure stamps to fit my theme, with some paper piecing, satin ribbon and a hat pin for that extra touch of style!


Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Birthday Blues

It's DD's 19th birthday today and the first time ever she hasn't been home for her birthday, so I'm missing her especially much today. All my love and big hugs have been sent down to Melbourne to wish her a special day - Happy Birthday sweetie xxxxooooo mwah!

Naturally, I made her a card. DD's fav colours are blue and brown and she loves polka dots and cupcakes, so I have incorporated all of those things. I cased the card from the lovely Teneale and borrowed the stamp set from a friend.



As her main present is cash I thought I'd make a couple of small extras to pop in the mail with her card - just fun little things that will give her a giggle. I made a small box filled with her fav choccies and a lollipop holder for the sweet stuff, a post-it note holder as she uses tons of those, and another folder with a notepad, calendar and envelopes which I hope might come in handy occasionally. Here they are:






Materials used:
  • stamps - Crazy for Cupcakes, Party This Way, Afterthoughts, Every Moment 
  • card - soft suede, crumb cake, very vanilla, baja breeze, marina mist, not quite navy, watercolour paper
  • DSP - Elegant Soiree
  • other - box #2 die, decorative label punch, vintage brad, marina mist satin ribbon, markers, square punch, soft suede grosgrain ribbon, non SU balloon punch, crystal effects, owl punch
Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

What To Do ...

For some time now I have kept two blogs; on this one I have used primarily Stampin' Up! products and on my other blog I have used other brand stamps and products that I love although I almost always use SU card, inks etc. However, I am finding it way too difficult to keep up two blogs and am thinking of either amalgamating them or of simply closing my other blog down.

So, I thought I would ask you what you would prefer to see - keep this blog almost exclusively SU or do you mind other things in here? There is a voting widget on the top right column and I would be very grateful for your feedback to help me decide.

Thanks!

Cheers
Kez

Monday, April 4, 2011

Lookie What I Got!

It's my birthday today and at a play day with friends last week, my lovely mate Robyn gave me this box:




Isn't it GORGEOUS? What was it filled with? Well, it was fit to bursting with choccies, but they seem to have disappeared somewhere ...  There were so many of them they've stretched the box! LOL! Can't think where they might have all gone .....

But wait! There's more! Rob also made me one of her cute owl pull sweet treat thingies - have a gander at this:



Sooooo cute! The sweet treat cup was filled with mini M&Ms but strangely they seem to be MIA as well ...

I am very blessed to have such good friends - and so talented too! Thanks Robbity!

Back on Wednesday with DD's birthday treats. Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Make A Quilt

Mojo was partially restored yesterday when I came across a quilted pattern I had begun making last week. I actually hauled out my sewing machine - which DD12 uses more than I do - and did some stitching on the card! Don't look too closely at it though - a great sewer I am definitely not, LOL.



Materials used:
  • stamps - Sew Suite
  • card - rose red, very vanilla, garden green, Springtime Vintage DSP, watercolour paper
  • other - sewing machine, nestabilities die, computer and printer, dimensionals

I received another blog award during the week from Cynthia - many thanks my dear. I won't tell you 7 things about me cause I've pretty much run out of those! I'm supposed to pass this on to 15 bloggers (phew!) so will dedicate it to all those on my "Blogs I love to visit" list as I gain inspiration from them all on a regular basis. Please visit them when you have the time and give them all some comment love!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Saturday, April 2, 2011

If You Find My Mojo ...

... please encourage it nicely to come back!!!

I was busy earlier in the week making a few things for DD No.1's upcoming birthday (more on that Wednesday) and then yesterday had to sit down and create some cards for next Tuesday's class. Well, somewheres in between my mojo wandered off and got lost and I had a terrible time trying to come up with something I am happy with. I'm still 50/50 on these cards but unless a thunderbolt of inspiration hits me between now and Monday, my Lana ladies will be stuck with them!

I am still endeavouring to use up some of my supplies of retired stuff and these bright and breezy papers appealed to me at the time. I had borrowed the Crazy for Cupcakes set and decided to use that for a range of birthday cards and ... well, if you could see the overflowing state of my rubbish bin, you would have an idea of the angst that went on here! Just as well DD No. 2 was at school!!! LOL

So here they are, my three bright and breezy birthday cards:




All the images are stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with inks and markers. Crystal effects gave them some gloss and dimension as well as hiding a multitude of sins with the colouring! I do see one, however, that needs a couple more corrections ....



Materials used:

  • stamps - Crazy for Cupcakes, Party This Way, Sweet Little Sentiments
  • card - taken with teal, daffodil delight, old olive, rose red, watercolour paper, DSP from retired scrapbooking kit (forgotten the name)
  • other - large oval and scallop oval punches, rose red and old olive ribbon, dimensionals, dazzling diamonds

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers
Kez